What can you get for $1?

Hubby and I do most of our shopping for kids' clothes at thrift stores. There are a couple of awesome ones near our house, and it makes no sense to pay $10 or more for a piece of clothing that will be worn for just a few months. So, I did some shopping for the kids a few weeks ago, and stopped by the men's sweater rack while I was there to see if there were any good items for upcycling into diaper covers. I know, I know, I should really limit myself to sewing out of my massive box of sweaters that I got for $10, but... well, what can I say. I'm not that disciplined. And anyway, the sweater rack is pretty hit or miss, so it's by no means a certainty that I'll find anything good when I look.

Well, turns out that it was a "hit" day. I picked up three nice wool sweaters for a grand total of $3.50.

Here is the first one. It was priced at $4, but since it was sale day at the thrift store, it was only $1. (Yeah, that's right, I'm so cheap that I don't even shop thrift stores: I shop sale days at thrift stores.)

It's from American Eagle Outfitters. 100% lambswool, which is one of my very favorite types of wool for upcycling, because it is usually soft but still nice and thick. Men's size extra large, which meant that even after I felted it slightly (by washing on warm and then drying on high) to make it a little thicker, it was still plenty big.

So, I got to cutting and sewing. And after a few hours, I had this:

Top left - Soaker, Katrina pattern size medium, made out of the body of the sweater.

Bottom left - Shorties, Katrina pattern size small, made out of the bottom of the sweater's body.

Right - Longies, Katrina pattern size medium, made out of the sweater sleeves.

Now for some action shots! The soaker is a little big on Noob, but not too bad:

By the way, I cheated on this one :) I didn't have enough fabric in the sweater for an extra wetzone layer, so I cut one out of a coat (from my $10 box of sweaters... so I did use it!). It's super thick, so this soaker should be pretty bulletproof. Here's a shot of the inside with the extra layer:

Here are the shorties. They are a little long, because I cut them the same length as the other pair of shorties I made, forgetting that I wouldn't be hemming these ones :) (I used the finished edge of the bottom of the sweater instead.)

And the longies. Obviously, Noob won't have any use for these until next winter, so I made them pretty big:

Not bad for a buck.